Day One: Hosts Start With Win

The race to the U16 European Championship Division A tickets started in Portugal on Thursday with several one-sided contests.

The hosting team wrote a good start in Group B with a 90-69 triumph over Switzerland as five players scored in double-digits.

In a Balkan derby Bulgaria wrote a big 23 point win over their neighbors from the north Romania 87-64 behind 45 combined points by Tencho Tenchev and Pavlin Ivanov.

Only one game took place in Group A where Georgia easily beat Ireland 86-78. The Irish team entered the last quarter down by 23 points, but managed to cut deficit thanks to 29 points by Adrian O'Sullivan who took no less than 14 attempts from long distance.

Group C saw two teams with high ambitions to go to Division A - Sweden and Slovenia - with impressive wins.

Sweden, aiming to join the U18 team that jumped to the top division earlier this week, beat Luxembourg 108-54 in a game that was decided already in the first half.

Slovenia wasn't much far behind with a 100-63 victory over Belarus who saw only one player in double-digits compared to five Slovenians.

In Group D two almost identical results as the Slovak Republic beat Netherlands 80-70 despite entering the last quarter behind, while England kept Hungary behind with an 80-72 win thanks to the most intriguing performance of the day as guard Devon Van Oostrum wrote 22 points, nine assists, eight rebounds and six steals.